[Live-demo] Re: Fwd: Re: Feedback on the R overview documentation on the OSGeo-Live DVD

Alex Mandel tech_dev at wildintellect.com
Mon Aug 2 19:27:28 EDT 2010


Material for the quickstart is at the end of the old docs in the
description.html file. At least how to start and run a demo.
Just haven't had time to copy it over.

Thanks,
Alex

On 08/02/2010 04:20 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
> Ned,
> Excellent write up of R. Thank you.
> 
> I've reviewed and applied some minor word-smithing, results below.
> 
> I'm going to push my luck now. Half the OSGeo-Live projects now have 5 minute 
> QuickStart documentation, which is really helpful for new users to get a feel 
> for how to use the application.
> 
> If you have the chance to write one of these for R, that would be fantastic.
> We'd need it completed this week (preferably earlier in the week than later) as 
> we are going into User Acceptance Test in ~ 24 hours, to be completed in one week.
> 
> Howto write a QuickStart is here:
> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Application_Overview
> 
> If you wish to update the svn directory so you can update it yourself, please 
> give me your osgeo user id, created here:
> http://www.osgeo.org/osgeo_userid
> 
> 
>   R Spatial Task View¶ <cid:part1.08080604.04020104 at gmail.com>
> 
> 
>     Statistical Programming¶ <cid:part2.06040703.00080107 at gmail.com>
> 
> R is a powerful, widely used software environment for statistical computing and 
> graphics which excels at analyzing and processing geographic data sets. 
> Geospatial analysis capabilities within R are available in R packages (modules 
> that extend the capabilities of R) that provide access to a large number of 
> traditional and state of the art algorithms, often before they are available in 
> other open source or proprietary software. R and it’s packages are able to 
> process point, line, polygon and grid data. Users can accomplish a broad array 
> of tasks such as: image classification, statistical analysis to infer spatial 
> relationships and patterns of features, and others listed in the core features 
> below. The functions available via R compliment and advance capabilities found 
> in GIS and image processing software.
> 
> The core R interface is a command line window which provides excellent 
> flexibility and control but tends to lengthen the time required to become a 
> proficient user when compared to software with a graphical user interface (GUI). 
> Fortunately R is well documented on the web site which eases the learning 
> proces. Scripts are often used to automate processing steps and there are 
> projects that are developing open source GUIs for R 
> (http://rwiki.sciviews.org/doku.php?id=guis:guis).
> 
> R is an implementation of the S programming language and there is significant 
> compatibility between R and legacy S and S-Plus code as well as between R and 
> the modern commercial version of S, TIBCO Spotfire S+. This comparability makes 
> it possible to convert different versions of S code to run on R without major 
> code modifications.
> 
> 
>       Core Features¶ <cid:part3.06020009.08060504 at gmail.com>
> 
>     * Complete Object Oriented Programming Language designed for Statistics and
>       similar Mathematical intensive applications
>     * Hundreds of community contributed add-on packages for spatial statistics
>     * Classes for spatial data
>     * Handling spatial data
>     * Reading and writing spatial data
>     * Point pattern analysis
>     * Geostatistics
>     * Disease mapping and areal data analysis
>     * Spatial regression
>     * Ecological analysis
> 
> 
>       Details¶ <cid:part4.00040706.07020008 at gmail.com>
> 
> *Website:* http://cran.r-project.org
> 
> *Licence:* GPL
> 
> *Supported Platforms:* Windows, Linux, Mac, Unix
> 
> *Community Support:* http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Spatial.html
> 
> 
> 
> On 03/08/10 03:10, Ned Horning wrote:
>> Hi Cameron,
>>
>> I attached a draft of the revised text. It still needs some word smithing but 
>> hopefully it is a step in the right direction. I might have a little time 
>> tomorrow to address questions if you have any. Sorry for not being more 
>> through but I'm pinched for time at the moment.
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Ned
>>
>> On 07/30/2010 04:26 PM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>> I'm happy to accept updated text in whatever format you like, and I can 
>>> convert to RST. (you will probably find that just following existing doc, you 
>>> will be creating RST text without realising it.)
>>>
>>> Any cleanup according to the comments below would be great. At the moment, R 
>>> documentation is significantly below par of other projects, and I'm not 
>>> familiar with R which makes it hard to clean it docs up.
>>>
>>> On 30/07/10 23:22, Ned Horning wrote:
>>>> Hi Cameron,
>>>>
>>>> I can take a quick look at this but I don't have a lot of time that I can 
>>>> put into this before Monday. I'm not an R expert but I expect I can try to 
>>>> address the comments you made but I can't promise to do anything all that 
>>>> significant. Is there an easy way for me to access and edit the text? I'm 
>>>> not familiar with RST.
>>>>
>>>> All the best,
>>>>
>>>> Ned
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 07/30/2010 09:04 AM, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>>>> Ned,
>>>>> I wonder whether you could help out with marketing R.
>>>>> My feedback on the existing material is below.
>>>>>
>>>>> -------- Original Message --------
>>>>> Subject: 	Re: Feedback on the R overview documentation on the OSGeo-Live DVD
>>>>> Date: 	Thu, 29 Jul 2010 12:16:30 +1000
>>>>> From: 	Cameron Shorter <cameron.shorter at gmail.com>
>>>>> To: 	Massimo Di Stefano <massimodisasha at gmail.com>, Alex Mandel 
>>>>> <tech_dev at wildintellect.com>, Barry Rowlingson 
>>>>> <b.rowlingson at googlemail.com>, Joanne Cook <j.cook at oxfordarch.co.uk>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Barry is on leave in Canada and doesn't expect to be able to look at this 
>>>>> until early August.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is a problem because we are schedule to build to the DVD for User 
>>>>> Acceptance Test next Monday 2 August.
>>>>>
>>>>> Is someone else available to write about R?
>>>>> Do you have some friends you can call upon, or able to forward this email 
>>>>> onto an R user list maybe?
>>>>>
>>>>> On 29/07/10 09:28, Cameron Shorter wrote:
>>>>>> Alex,
>>>>>> Thanks for your first cut of the R overview documentation. The general 
>>>>>> structure is looking good, and list of features is good.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think we can improve of the marketing spin of the doc a bit.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Barry and Massimo,
>>>>>> I'm hoping your experience with R can help us out here, as I know that 
>>>>>> Alex is flat out building releases of the LiveDVD and is unlikely to get 
>>>>>> time to update these docs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We aim to have all overview docs finalised by the end of this week, so 
>>>>>> input sooner rather than later would be good.
>>>>>> How to write these docs is described here:
>>>>>> http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Live_GIS_Add_Project#Application_Overview
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Source docs are in RST wiki format here:
>>>>>> https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/livedvd/gisvm/trunk/doc/overview/R_overview.rst
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Below is the HTML, with my comments in italics.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>   R Spatial Task View¶
>>>>>>   <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.2&filename=R_overview.html>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     Statistical Programming¶
>>>>>>     <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.3&filename=R_overview.html>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> R is a leading Open Source statistical program/programming language for 
>>>>>> computation and graphics.
>>>>>> /Cameron: Try and cover all key points in first sentence, as some readers 
>>>>>> will only read the first sentence. Maybe "R is a powerful, widely used 
>>>>>> statistical program and programming language which excels at analysing and 
>>>>>> displaying geographic datasets." Words like "open source" are not required 
>>>>>> as they are implied by everything on the DVD. I'd prefer not to mention 
>>>>>> OS, but you can put it later in the description if you like./
>>>>>> /
>>>>>> Cameron: We need a sentence or 2 here to explain geospatial statistical 
>>>>>> analysis to a new user who's mapping experience includes using google maps 
>>>>>> and maybe styling a shapefile layer. Maybe start with "Geospatial 
>>>>>> statistical analysis can be used for such things as ... "/
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The Spatial Task View is a collection or R packages focused on handling, 
>>>>>> analysing and displaying geographic datasets. Many of the most commonly 
>>>>>> used Geospatial packages have been included on the live dvd to augement 
>>>>>> the default R installation.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /Cameron: So far I haven't got a feeling for how I'd create the nice GUI 
>>>>>> output shown in the diagram. Maybe add words like "... for example, to 
>>>>>> create a xxx diagram, you would ..."
>>>>>> /
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /Cameron: Does R have a non-programming interface? Say so here if it does.
>>>>>> /
>>>>>>
>>>>>> /Cameron: I think we need to explain the relationship between R & S to 
>>>>>> someone already familiar with S (and still be understandable to someone 
>>>>>> who knows neither R or S). Maybe add words like "R is an open source 
>>>>>> implementation of the S statistical programming language. Old S programs 
>>>>>> can relatively easily be converted to R with some minor changes to syntax."
>>>>>> /
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> project logo 
>>>>>> <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.4&filename=r-perspective.png> 
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       Core Features¶
>>>>>>       <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.5&filename=R_overview.html>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     * Complete Object Oriented Programming Language designed for
>>>>>>       Statistics and similar Mathematical intensive applications
>>>>>>     * Hundreds of community contributed add-on packages for spatial statistics
>>>>>>     * Classes for spatial data
>>>>>>     * Handling spatial data
>>>>>>     * Reading and writing spatial data
>>>>>>     * Point pattern analysis
>>>>>>     * Geostatistics
>>>>>>     * Disease mapping and areal data analysis
>>>>>>     * /Cameron: I suspect it better not to pick out a specific vertical
>>>>>>       market like disease, but rather mention horizontal use cases (like
>>>>>>       the other features)/
>>>>>>     * Spatial regression
>>>>>>     * Ecological analysis
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       Implemented Standards¶
>>>>>>       <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.6&filename=R_overview.html>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>     * OGC standards compliant ()
>>>>>>     * /Cameron: If there are no OGC standards implemented, then remove
>>>>>>       this heading. Otherwise, mention the specific standards used./
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>       Details¶
>>>>>>       <imap://cameron%2Eshorter%40gmail%2Ecom@imap.gmail.com:993/fetch%3EUID%3E/%5BGmail%5D/Sent%20Mail%3E27127?header=quotebody&part=1.1.7&filename=R_overview.html>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Website:* http://cran.r-project.org
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Licence:* GPL
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Supported Platforms:* Windows, Linux, Mac, Unix
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Community Support:* http://cran.r-project.org/web/views/Spatial.html
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>>>> Geospatial Director
>>>>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>>>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>>>>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>>>>>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>>>>>    
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> -- 
>>>>> Cameron Shorter
>>>>> Geospatial Solutions Manager
>>>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>>>
>>>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>>>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>>>>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>>>>    
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> Cameron Shorter
>>> Geospatial Director
>>> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
>>> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>>>
>>> Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>>> http://www.lisasoft.com
>>>    
>>
> 
> 
> -- 
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Director
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
> 
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
> 



More information about the Live-demo mailing list